Surat

Today we finally moved from our lovely riverside pub stay at Nindigully Pub. We made our way to St George where we filled up water at the visitor Centre (causing a scuffle of grey nomads who thought we’d pushed in front of them - actually we’d been waiting before them but not on a good angle for swinging in to the tap so we drove out and in again, much to the disgust of the anxious nomads waiting).

After filling we walked along the river front and then visited a indigenous art gallery and got a personal guided tour of the paintings by the artist as well as an introduction and explanation of the didgeridoo. He played several words in his local tongue using the didgeridoo and then played us a story of a kangaroo hopping along, stopping on alert but eventually being overcome by a wild dog. It was very special to have this one on one tour.

Next, we crossed the Main Street and visited the Unique Egg, a museum (almost shrine) to the carving of emu eggs by one man, Stavros, who migrated to Australia from Greece many years ago snd settled in St George. He is the only person in the world who makes these carvings, after many years ago picking up an emu egg and discovering the many layers to the shell, which he began gently carving with home made whittling tools. Carving the eggs has become a labor of love and a legacy, as he doesn’t sell them, but is happy for people to view them in his museum. Each egg has a different image carved into it, many celebrating big world events such as Olympic Games, centenaries, presidencies and marriages. He has given gifts of an egg carved specially to Barack Obama (and received an official letter of thanks), among others.

After a quick stop at a bakery for lunch we filled fuel and discovered there was an auto electrician in town where we spent the next couple of hours having the car and caravan batteries tested (we’ve been having trouble keeping them charged) and an Anderson cable drilled in readiness for our new inverter we are still waiting to arrive at the post office in Roma.

Cadbury and I went to sit in the shade across the road and waited...and waited...

Eventually after 5pm (and an invoice for waaay too much money, but we won’t talk about that!) we were finally on our way, albeit very late to be driving on country highways as sunset was almost upon us - and this is the time kangaroos like to stay close to the road as it retains the heat from the day.

We drove very carefully to the next small town of Surat and made it to the free camp just on dark, both weary from being on kangaroo alert. We drove in, set up the satellite dish (some people are addicted to Survivor!) and heated up leftover chicken curry for a quick dinner.

That’s all for today. Good night from Surat, Queensland xxRead more